


Broken Pieces

by celeste9



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Crossover, Crossover Pairings, F/F, First Time, Getting to Know Each Other, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Pre-Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 09:48:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17221637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celeste9/pseuds/celeste9
Summary: When Rey brought a droid back to her AT-AT with the intention of repairing it and earning herself more credits than she had ever seen in her life, the last thing she was expecting was for the droid to turn out to be not a droid at all, but a cybernetically modified being called Nebula who didn't take well to being scavenged for parts.





	Broken Pieces

The droid, Rey thought, as she strapped it to the back of her speeder, was unlike any droid she had ever seen before. Its shape was humanoid and feminine, like its designers had wanted it to look less like a machine and more like a being. Its hands were particularly fine, like synth replacement limbs, with delicate fingers. She wondered how it had come to be wrecked in Jakku; it must have been valued once.

Repaired, this droid would feed her for… Well, it would win her portions to last long enough for her family to return, Rey was certain.

It was too valuable to take to Unkar Plutt’s stall. No, this she would need to keep secret. She would bring it to her AT-AT, repair it where no one could see, where no one could steal it.

This droid, Rey felt, would be her salvation.

-

Rey had only a quarter portion for her evening meal. It barely made a dent in the rumbling hunger in her belly but it was better than nothing, and it made her more determined to fix this droid.

She set to work with her tools, awkwardly maneuvering the droid into a seated a position while she surveyed the damage and attempted to locate the droid’s processor. The panel on most droids was easy to pinpoint but this droid was… It could have passed for humanoid, if you didn’t look too closely.

Rey used her bare hands to feel at the base of the droid’s neck and drew back, startled. The texture was that of organic skin, not metal. What sort of droid was this? She investigated more closely, growing rapidly alarmed.

She was fairly certain this wasn’t a droid at all, but a being that had been modified with mechanical parts.

Sitting back on her heels, Rey chewed her lip and thought. It must be dead. She. She must be dead. Right? Rey had dragged her out of a wrecked ship hours ago, with no sign of movement. The ship had been buried, revealed only after the last sandstorm shifted the sands in the ship graveyard. It had to have been there for years.

But her mechanical parts… Rey could still scavenge those, couldn’t she? Whoever this being had been, she wasn’t getting any use of out of her parts, and Rey could live off the portions she traded them for.

It was only a matter of practicality. She could… she could bury the woman later, as a sign of respect.

It would have been easier if she were a droid, and she would be more valuable that way, but Rey could still make this work.

She wondered how much blood there would be.

Rey got started cataloguing which parts seemed mechanical. Her arms, though perhaps not the right hand, that seemed to be organic still, and her left eye. When Rey stroked her fingers investigatively over the woman’s face and head, it felt as though sections of her skull had been replaced. Could there be modifications to her brain? Would there be circuitry inside?

Curiosity and fascination overtook any distaste Rey might have felt for what she was planning to do. The woman was dead, anyway, and would feel nothing.

She was bent over, tracing fingers over the woman’s knee – at least partly mechanical, she thought – when a hand wrapped around her neck.

Rey had just enough air to gasp and she latched her fingers around the woman’s hand, scrabbling.

So, not dead, then.

“What are you doing?” the woman asked, her voice low and throaty.

Rey struggled to get free. The woman had the strength of a droid.

The woman tossed her to the ground and Rey lay there heaving as she regained her breath. As she watched, the woman stretched and popped her joints, as though putting herself back into order, before she stood, gaze flicking around her.

“What is this place?”

“Jakku,” Rey managed to say. “My home.” She kept her eyes focused on the woman so as not to alert her to her plan of diving for her staff as soon as she saw an opening.

“Jakku,” the woman repeated. “Never heard of it.”

“Most haven’t.”

“Why am I here?”

“You’d know the answer to that better than me.”

The woman’s gaze was withering. “In your home?”

If she would only look away for a moment, Rey could reach her staff. “I’m a scavenger. I thought you were a droid.”

“A droid?”

Rey shrugged. She thought it might be better to leave out the part where she had realized the woman wasn’t a droid but had decided to scavenge her anyway.

“Do you still wish to sell me?”

The staff momentarily forgotten, Rey watched the woman in surprise. “Not sure I’d get any offers.”

The woman’s lips curved into what might have been a smile, if it weren’t so feral. “I would kill whoever made you one.”

“Will you kill me too?” Rey simply wanted to know whether she should expect the attempt or not.

“Are you going to give me a reason to?”

“I did try to scavenge you.”

“From the looks of this place,” the woman said, gaze momentarily flickering away from Rey, “I can see why you tried.”

There was Rey’s opening. She sprang to the corner for her staff, but she only managed to grab it before the woman was on her. She flung Rey bodily against the opposite side of the AT-AT, her back colliding against it with a harsh smack. Rey winced as she slid to the floor, reaching for her discarded staff.

The woman grabbed it first, holding it and admiring the construction. She raised the sole of her boot to knock Rey flat and then left her foot resting on Rey’s chest, firmly enough to discourage movement. “Your efforts are commendable but you won’t win.”

“What do you want?” Rey exclaimed. “You were as good as dead until I dug you up! You’re more machine than being, from what I can tell. And if you want to kill me, well…” She trailed off. She wasn’t in the best position but she still wouldn’t make it easy.

Something in Rey’s words seemed to have struck the woman, as her expression turned pensive and she held one hand to her temple, as though thinking, or remembering, or, if Rey’s theory about having circuitry in her head was true, engaging processors that may be damaged.

“Thanos,” she muttered, as though speaking to herself out loud. “Half of everyone, gone. The ship, we were supposed to… Gamora,” she said, and her voice cracked, so slightly as to almost be unnoticeable.

“Who’s Gamora?” Rey asked.

The woman looked down at her, her expression morphing from harsh to soft and back to harsh. “My sister.”

“I’m sorry,” Rey said, because it felt like the thing to say. She had the idea that ‘sister’ barely covered it and that there was some deep well of pain associated with her.

Seeming surprised, the woman blinked at her. She lifted her foot from Rey’s chest and turned away.

“You have nowhere to go,” Rey said, sitting up. “You don’t know how to survive here.”

The woman laughed bitterly. “I can survive anywhere.”

“Maybe. But… I could help you,” Rey offered, and she had no idea why she was saying it. This woman, more mechanical than organic, was dangerous. She was unstable. Rey should want her gone as soon as possible, now that it was clear she would have to abandon her hopes of scavenge.

And yet, Rey didn’t quite want her gone.

“Help me?” the woman said, turning back around to face Rey and leveling her gaze at her. “I could kill you and feel nothing.”

“But you haven’t killed me yet.”

“Doesn’t mean I won’t.”

“Doesn’t mean I won’t kill you, either.”

The woman smiled, seeming genuinely amused this time. “Who are you, scavenger?”

“I’m Rey.”

“My name is Nebula,” the woman said, and held out Rey’s staff to her.

Rey took it.

-

Rey took Nebula with her to the graveyard to scavenge. Mostly this was because she didn’t trust Nebula on her own in the AT-AT, but it was also because Rey had meant what she said. She would help Nebula; she wouldn’t drag her like deadweight. Nebula would earn her place, and learn how to survive on Jakku.

It was also a fact that Rey didn’t have the food to support another being. She barely earned enough to feed herself. This, though, Nebula claimed wouldn’t be a problem, when Rey mentioned they would need to find scavenge enough to support two.

“I have no need of food,” she said.

Rey was silent for a moment. “Right. Because you’re not entirely organic.”

She thought of the old stories of Darth Vader. They had said he was more machine than man.

Nebula seemed to be like that, too.

“Why are you like this?” Rey blurted out.

Judging by the look on Nebula’s face, Rey assumed she wouldn’t get an answer. Eventually, though, Nebula said, “When I was a child, my father would make my sister and me fight. Every time, she won. So my father would replace a part of me with cybernetics, to make me stronger. But every time, I still lost.”

She said this very matter of fact.

Rey lowered her gaze and swallowed. She wondered if in some cases, it might be better to be left than to be kept.

She had no idea how to respond. She didn’t think Nebula expected anything.

She said, “Let’s get to my speeder.”

-

Nebula proved useful. Rey didn’t know why she was surprised.

Nebula was a fast learner and her strength was matched by her smarts. Over the years Rey had become highly adept at navigating the most precarious spaces of the ships but Nebula moved more nimbly even than Rey did, and she could carry far more. It wasn’t a particularly notable haul to bring to Unkar Plutt, but it was better than Rey would have managed on her own.

She supposed it was only fair, that helping Nebula should help her, too.

The unfortunate drawback was that Nebula was terrible at doing as she was told. For as many times as Rey would say, ‘no, not that way’, or ‘I checked that room only last week’, Nebula would look at her and ignore her directions utterly. She was annoyingly, frustratingly stubborn, and Rey wasn’t used to having a partner, let alone one who felt she knew best in spite of having been comatose in a ship for stars knew how long.

So there was that.

They received stares in Niima Outpost. Rey had always operated alone, not trusting a partner, and Nebula was a stranger, and an oddity. She glared at everyone, which made them all drop their gazes and pretend as though they hadn’t looked in the first place.

Plutt cheated them. Rey argued, and then took what he offered. It wasn’t like she had another choice.

Nebula remained silent until they returned to the AT-AT. Within, as Rey prepared the meager meal, Nebula said, “Why did you let him give you less than what you’re owed?”

“I don’t let him do anything. He decides what he gives, and we take it because we’ve got no other option. That’s how it works here.”

“I could kill him. Would that help?”

Rey stared, her protein patty burning in the pan. “Is that a serious question?”

Nebula’s expression was the only reply Rey needed.

She sighed. “We don’t just kill people.”

“Why not? It would get you what you wanted.”

“We just don’t! And anyway, I’m not sure it would help. Someone else will just take over where he’s left off.”

“You could be that person.”

Rey snorted and flipped her patty, scraping it from the bottom where it was sticking. “I don’t want to. I’m good at scavenging, that’s all. Anyway I won’t be here forever.”

Nebula eyed the marks along Rey’s wall and Rey flushed.

“My family will return for me,” she insisted. She doubted Nebula believed her but it didn’t matter.

“In my experience,” Nebula said, “you’re better off without family.”

Rey thought about Nebula’s cybernetic enhancements and suppressed a shiver. “You think that about your sister, too?”

Nebula stood, radiating fury. “I think that about her most of all,” she gritted between her teeth before storming outside.

Somehow, Rey didn’t believe that was true.

-

Rey often used the time in the early mornings or the evenings to train with her staff, when the desert heat wasn’t so overwhelming. Some mornings she left for the graveyard too early and some evenings she was simply too exhausted, but she tried never to go more than a few days without getting some work in.

To live this life, you had to be able to defend yourself or you wouldn’t survive.

Nebula watched her the first time. It was slightly unnerving, feeling that silent, steady focus, so Rey simply attempted to ignore her. It was harder than it seemed, given both that Rey was so unused to company, let alone company she wanted to ignore, and that Nebula’s presence was so tangible it was hard to pretend it wasn’t there.

The second time, Nebula critiqued her form.

Peeved, Rey continued in her rhythm, just a little breathless as she spoke. “I’ve been fighting off beings trying to claim what’s mine for years. Think I’m all right.”

“All right,” Nebula agreed, “but there’s a lot of room for improvement.”

“Yeah? And who’s going to do the improving? Are you offering?”

Nebula shrugged.

Rey resumed her training.

The third time, Nebula attacked her. Caught unawares, Rey ended up on her back looking up, her staff knocked out of her grip. Swearing under her breath, Rey rocked backwards onto her shoulder blades to gain the momentum to leap back up to her feet. She managed to duck under Nebula’s jab and rolled to get her staff, swiping it at Nebula’s feet. Nebula dodged like it was nothing.

Nebula dodged most of Rey’s attacks like they were nothing. It was slightly infuriating. More than slightly. Frustrated, Rey stepped back, circling, assessing. She tried to quiet her mind, relying on her senses, her instincts, and then dove.

She smacked the back of Nebula’s knee, jostling her off-balance, and then used her advantage to crack Nebula on the head. Nebula had Rey disarmed and on the ground about thirty seconds later, but Rey felt a flush of victory even so.

“I’m offering,” Nebula said, and Rey grinned up at her.

-

Training with Nebula became a part of Rey’s regular routine. Nebula never took it easy on her, which Rey was glad of, though she cared less for the giant bruise her body seemed to have become. She could feel herself becoming a better fighter, stronger, quicker, smarter.

And there was something else, too. Sometimes when they fought, if Rey quieted her mind enough, it was almost like… she could sense what was coming, how Nebula would move. Rey knew of course that there were always ways to tell, but it felt different than that. It felt like she had an extra sense guiding her, telling her what Nebula would do, what Rey should do.

When Rey listened, those were generally the times she bested Nebula.

Rey suspected the training helped Nebula settle in as much as it helped Rey adjust to her settling in. Nebula wasn’t terribly chatty, but that was hardly a problem given that Rey didn’t think she was terribly chatty, either. She had never had occasion to find out but she discovered she enjoyed sitting with Nebula in silence while she ate, or while they cleaned their scavenge before trading it in.

Nebula didn’t sleep in the way that other humanoids did, but she did rest briefly in the night. She generally tended to be awake after Rey went to sleep and up again before Rey rose in the morning, but once or twice, Rey startled awake in the middle of the night from nightmares and rolled over to see Nebula across the AT-AT, sitting in the dim light with her eyes closed. It was something between sleeping and recharging, Rey thought.

As Rey took careful breaths to slow her breathing down, she would watch Nebula, her slim, unique form. Rey had little chance to admire it, beyond the uncomfortable, growing awareness that she liked the way it felt when Nebula pinned her to the ground during their sparring matches.

Rey liked the blue tones of her skin, the smooth curve of her head, and her long limbs. She liked the flare of her hips and the darkness of her eyes. Warmth pooled in her belly as her gaze lingered on Nebula, until she rolled back over and closed her eyes, willing herself to return to sleep.

-

_X’us’R’iia_ struck a month and three days after Nebula first agreed to stay. Rey had to forcibly stop Nebula from venturing outside in spite of her warning.

“I’m not a human,” she said. “I’m not so fragile.”

“No, but wind and sand will damage you just the same,” Rey retorted, irritated. She wouldn’t let a droid out in this. Why would she let Nebula out?

Nebula glared down at Rey from her greater height until striking her fist to the AT-AT beside Rey’s head. If she expected Rey to flinch, she was disappointed. She turned away in a huff.

Rey resisted rolling her eyes.

“I’m not happy about it either,” she said. “It’s just part of life here.”

“Life here is terrible.”

“Well, yes.”

Nebula looked over at her, eyebrow arched.

Rey shrugged.

Nebula’s lips just barely lifted upward and she sat down, leaning her back against the wall. “Do you have enough food? How long will this storm last?”

Did Nebula actually care? Rey chewed on her lip. She had never thought… Nebula always seemed to… “I’ll be okay. The water’s the most important thing and I’ve got that stored. I’ll be hungry, but I’m used to it.”

“Used to it,” Nebula repeated, anger in her tone. “Are you certain you don’t want me to kill Unkar Plutt for you? He’d die easily.”

“I’m sure,” Rey said, but she was smiling, weirdly touched.

-

The worst part of these long storms wasn’t the hunger; Rey was, as she had told Nebula, used to being hungry. That didn’t mean she liked it, of course, but it was nothing new.

The worst part was the feeling of being penned in.

As proud as Rey was of her AT-AT, she hated being stuck inside it for days and sometimes weeks at a time. She missed racing over the sands on her speeder; she missed practicing with her staff and sparring with Nebula; she even missed climbing through the wreckage of the ships in the graveyard. She missed the sight of the sun.

She had beaten every level of her flight simulator so often that she had the courses memorized. It didn’t stop her from spending hours on the computer anyway, but it did mean that the game had lost its thrill. At least this time, she could amuse herself watching Nebula try her hand at it. Nebula had apparently flown actual ships, which Rey felt made it even funnier when she crashed her first five times in a row in the simulator.

Rey had to rescue the console from her before she destroyed it in a fit of pique.

More often than not, it was simply Rey and Nebula sitting quietly. Rey had the journal she had found abandoned in Niima Outpost once, only a few pages used, the journal that she considered one of her most valued possessions. She found herself sketching Nebula on a blank page, her fine profile.

She looked up to verify a detail, and saw Nebula fussing with the eye Rey had deduced was mechanical. “Is there something wrong with it?” she asked.

Nebula turned her head to watch Rey. “It’s not tracking properly. It needs to be cleaned.”

“I could help you.”

Nebula said nothing.

“It’s just…” Rey put her journal down, closing it, hiding the sketch from view. “Seems easier if I did it.”

After a moment, Nebula made a ‘come here’ gesture. Rey scrabbled over.

Fixing Nebula was everything and nothing like fixing a machine. She sat as still as though she weren’t alive but she _was;_ Rey could feel her in a way that was as far away from a machine as was possible. She was warm from working circuits but from life, too, and Rey knew that displeasure would make her react, even if pain likely wouldn’t.

It was strange to be so close. Even when they sparred, they were in constant motion, so it felt different. Now Rey was too aware of her own breathing, of her hands on Nebula. She wasn’t certain how much of the skin covering Nebula’s head was synthetic and how much was organic, but all of it felt soft and smooth and real. There was a metal plate around her robotic eye and this Rey carefully removed, so as to be able to see the inner workings of the eye.

It felt… intimate, and Rey could feel the flush creep up the back of her neck. She worked as quickly as possible and stopped her fingers from lingering when she replaced the plate, though she wanted to touch and touch and touch.

“Good as new,” she said, sitting back onto her heels, unaccountably nervous.

Nebula fixed her with a watchful gaze. “Thank you,” she said eventually, and Rey smiled.

“You’re welcome,” she said, and Nebula looked away as they sank back into silence.

-

At night, in the pure darkness of the AT-AT as the storm raged outside, Rey quietly touched herself.

It wasn’t the first time she had done so since Nebula began sharing her living space, but the frequency of taking such small pleasures had certainly diminished. It always felt somewhat awkward and Rey tried hard not to be noticed.

It was more awkward now, she thought, because it was Nebula’s face she pictured when she slid her hand down the front of her pants.

The tiny pallet Rey was lying on shifted.

Rey swiftly yanked her hand free and opened her eyes, confronted with Nebula’s face, not imagined, but across from her, watching.

“Would you like help?” Nebula asked.

Rey could feel the heat in her cheeks. “Help?” She hated the squeak in her voice.

“It’s better with two, isn’t it?”

“I… I…”

“It will help me pass the time.”

_Stars,_ Rey thought. “Stars,” she said aloud.

“Please,” Nebula said, carefully, softly.

Rey sat up a little, leaning on her elbows. This was… different. Could Nebula possibly…

Nebula was no longer looking at her. Her spine was stiff and she was clutching her hands into fists; Rey suspected she was very, very close to swinging her fists at the wall.

Not sure where her daring was coming from, Rey sat up all the way, the pallet small enough that the motion brought her near to Nebula. Slowly she reached out and dragged her fingertips down Nebula’s arm, to her organic hand. Nebula’s grip twitched open, revealing her palm, and Rey stroked it.

This seemed to have a calming effect on Nebula, who shivered at Rey’s touch. Rey leaned forward and kissed Nebula’s cheek; Nebula turned swiftly and pushed Rey down onto her back.

Rey yelped, shocked.

Nebula straddled her. “Should we pass the time now?”

Swallowing, Rey nodded. “Yes,” she said, feeling the quick beating of her heart, thumping in her ribcage. “Yes, we should.”

-

The storm passed, and Rey was glad to feel the scorching heat in the air, the sun on her face. She and Nebula ventured to the graveyard to see what the storm had uncovered.

They were too tired for anything else after.

-

Weeks more passed. Plutt continued to cheat them; Rey idly considered Nebula’s offer of murder.

She ate a meager quarter portion in the sand outside the AT-AT, while Nebula worked on a little project of hers, using scavenged parts to craft what she assured Rey would be a weapon when she was finished.

Rey had her doubts.

The commotion startled her, noise from over the dunes, the whistling of what might have been an astromech, the jabbering of a Teedo. She could feel Nebula rolling her eyes as she grabbed her staff and vaulted up, running towards the source of the excitement.

Rey tried not to grin to herself when she sensed Nebula following her.

It was easy enough to urge the Teedo on its way, and if it hadn’t been, well, there was very little Nebula shied from doing. Rey freed the little round droid the Teedo had been carting for sale, a little droid that was clearly far from home. She shooed it on its way.

The droid wouldn’t shoo.

Rey glanced to Nebula, certain of what the other woman would think of Rey’s frustrated inclination towards humoring the poor lost thing.

Nebula said, her disgust evident, “That’s what you confused me for?”

Rey laughed.


End file.
